In the following interview, we speak with Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Speck is an architect and city planner in Washington, D.C., oversaw the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, and served on the Sustainability Task Force of the Department of Homeland Security.
Speck joins us for a “Buy, Sell, or Hold” segment on sustainable transit issues such as car sharing, driverless cars, and the Segway, and then explains why market-oriented parking solutions and car-sharing programs are a “buy,” while Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s driverless car is a “sell.”
A transcript follows the video.
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Isaac Pino: Let’s wrap things up. One of the things we do here at the Fool is a “Buy, Sell, or Hold” segment.
Jeff Speck: I’m ready.
Pino: I think you were a fan of the Fool’s podcast, back in the day.
Speck: It wasn’t a podcast. We had something called “radio.”
Pino: Right, the radio. What is this you speak of?
Speck: You turn these knobs …
Pino: We’ll put you on the hot seat, and you can answer these however you want. If you want to take some time to explain —
Speck: I like the rapid fire, so I’ll just say “buy,” “sell,” or “hold.”
Pino: All right, well, let’s get it started. The first one is congestion pricing.
Speck: Buy.
Pino: Buy congestion pricing?
Speck: Yes.
Pino: In the near term?
Speck: You’re not going to go fast?
Pino: All right, fast.
Speck: Just go fast. Let’s get it over with.
Pino: Shopping malls — the future of shopping malls?
Speck: Sell.
Pino: Sell shopping malls. Tax incentives to attract employers?
Speck: Sell.
Pino: Sell. Market-oriented solutions to parking?
Speck: Buy.
Pino: Does that include … you discussed privatizing the parking, like Chicago did with Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).
Speck: Sell.
Pino: Sell that idea. Car-sharing ideas — Zipcar Inc (NASDAQ:ZIP).
Speck: Buy. Yeah, absolutely.
Pino: All right, buy that.
Speck: What’s the new one that I should recommend to all of you?
Audience member: Car2Go?
Speck: There’s Car2Go, but … oh, he’s going to kill me. This colleague of mine has a new one where you all give each other rides. SideCar. SideCar looks fantastic.
Pino: RelayRides, I think, is another one like that. All right, electric cars going mainstream?
Speck: Hold.
Pino: Hold that. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)‘s driverless car?
Speck: Sell.
Pino: All right. Streetcars?
Speck: Buy.
Pino: Finally, Segways?
Speck: No, streetcars get someone else to buy. That’s the trick. Segways, I would sell.
Pino: Sell Segways.
Speck: Yeah, these do deserve some elaboration.
A chapter of my book is stolen from Don Shoup, who wrote the book The High Cost of Free Parking. It’s an amazing book, but it’s 723 pages and three and a half pounds. It’s written as well as any book you’ll read, but no one buys a book that big for their pleasure, so I took his book and turned it into a chapter, with his blessing.
It’s a much longer discussion, though, and you should just read the book.
Electric cars, I think, are the right answer to the wrong question, as are any solution that makes it cleaner and cheaper to drive.
